‘Tell us what, but not how’ – understanding intra-organisational trust among principals and LEA officials in a decentralised school system

ABSTRACT

During the last two decades, researchers and practitioners have shown great interest in research concerning how to implement change in local schools. The research repeatedly stresses the importance of trust among colleagues, yet few studies have examined intra-organisational trust, or the absence of such, during a change process within a decentralised school system that includes local education authorities (LEAs) and local schools. This qualitative study of a municipality reveals principals’ and LEA officials’ views of intra-organisational trust, while managing a situation of a lack of quality within their school organisation. The article presents empirical data from interviews using the analytical perspective from intra-organisational trust to explore trust, or lack thereof. To analyse the statements, a framework of attributes of trust belief (views of co-workers’ benevolence, ability, integrity and predictability) is used. The results describe increasing trust belief among principals and LEA officials comprised in a collectivistic approach of building a new structure for quality and improvement work. The article contributes to the understanding of what creates trust as well as how the relationship between intra-organisational trust and school development can be understood.

KEYWORDS:

• Trust
• School organisation
• Principal
• Local education authorities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).